Abstract:  This email was forwarded to www.agedcarecrisis.com for inclusion on the website.  The author prefers to maintain their anonymity.  Note that the first email was sent to the
Ageing Minister in March, 2007, and the same email was then forwarded to Senator McLucas with a covering letter in May, 2007. 

-------------------------Original Message------------------------------
From: Anonymous (name and details supplied)
Sent: 31 March 2007
To: c.pyne.mp@aph.gov.au
Subject: Your speeches and positions related to Aged Care

Dear Mr Pyne,

Congratulations on your appointment to the Ministry as the Minister of for Aging.  I have enjoyed reading the selection of Speeches on your website that you have given in Parliament. I read with interest your Second Reading Speech of the Aged Care Amendment (Residential Care) Bill 2007. I wholly support the Government's decision to reduce the number of funding levels in residential aged care, with the intention of reducing the amount of paperwork nurses need to do.

This year I will have worked as an AIN for twenty years. I have over 34,000 hours nursing experience caring for the frail and aged in high-dependency aged care facilities. I am employed by (nursing home name removed for privacy reasons). Last year I had an epiphany, after 19 years of not wanting to be an RN, I decided that I should become one. I applied through the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) to gain entry as a mature aged student into a Bachelor of Nursing Degree program. I scored a QTAC rank of 98 out of a possible 100, and have now finished the fifth week of my first semester of a nursing degree at the Queensland University of Technology.

A Bachelor of Nursing degree is a three year, six semester course, with each semester having fourteen weeks of lectures. Therefore not counting mid-semester breaks, and exam periods, a bachelor of Nursing degree is 84 weeks long. I am therefore now 1/17th of a way towards my goal of Registration as a nurse. Registration I should receive in November 2009.

I love working in Aged Care. However I find the paperwork onerous, and that is as an AIN. The amount of paper work an RN has to do is the main reason why I am seriously considering leaving the Aged Care Sector when I gain my registration. The Howard Government's move to reduce the amount of burdensome paperwork gives me hope that I will be able to stay in the industry.

I am interested in learning how you will do things in your portfolio, compared to your predecessor Mr Santoro.

Prior to you becoming Minister for Aging, had you made any speeches specifically related to Aged Care? Do you have any personal policy statements on Aged Care and the future of Aged Care?
I look forward to reading more about your beliefs, and the direction you believe Aged Care needs to head.

On a personal note, have you ever had to place a loved one in an Aged Care facility? If so how did you feel, and how did you find the care? I ask this because my Mother is getting frailer, and I fear the day that Mum will have to enter a care facility.

Sincere Regards,
Anonymous (name and details supplied)